Bling !

Alloy (mixture of metals) rarely include aluminium on road cars as that's generally too soft so alloys aren't necessarily lighter than their steel alternatives.

Leaving aside the obvious accusation of bling, let's not forget how naff an elderly set of steels can look after years of exposure to brake dust. The corrosion can look far worse than with alloys, and I suspect they are much harder to restore - if anyone would bother. That's why entry-level cars with steels have "embellishers" to make them look like cheap alloys.

But I would also guess that steels stand up to careless treatment better.

Interesting to see how many of us - including me - favour steel wheels. I miss the good old hubcap, not least because they were the obvious place to put the wheelnuts when changing a wheel.

I think it's possible to design good-looking steel wheels, to avoid the wellies-with-a-suit look - but the market seems to want alloys. It would be quite difficult to sell a car fitted with steel wheels when that model normally came with alloys.

Edited by Avant on 31/07/2015 at 21:25

So much of what is seen as desirable in road cars (vs actual, genuine racecars) does come from the racing world.

This can be seen in things like spoilers and bodykits. Aerodynamics (especially downforce) make a huge difference for a powerful, RWD car doing 150mph down the straight, but not a whole lot for your average hatchback, even at motoway speeds.

On a racing car you want to minimise the rotating mass of the wheels, and reduce the "squidge" of the tyres to minimum needed to grip the road surface. On a smooth racing circuit this leads to low profile tyres and lightweight alloy wheels that in all honesty would not stand up to day-to-day road use.

Other problems with alloy wheels - eg hot brake dust breaking down the paint and eventually leading to galvanic corrosion of the wheel surface (especially in winter on heavily salted UK roads) are again not a problem in the race world, since cars get stripped, washed and reassembled between races for maintenance and repair.

But because alloy wheels and low profile tyres are a 'look' that high performance cars have for a reason, manufacturers have tried to use that to "sportify" many of their cars that really don't need it (and in some cases it actively harms the ride, puts the edges of the rims in harms way (kerbs, potholes etc) and makes the tyres more expensive to buy.

(Never understood that, I'd have thought a lower profile tyre would cost less, there being less tyre overall?!)

Now look at your average MPV - does it need 17 or even 18 inch alloy wheels? Of course not. But it (supposedly) looks better with them on, and what looks better, sells.

I think it would be possible to manufacture some very nice looking steel wheels if you tried - especially if they were powder coated appropriately. But the market thinks "steel wheels are for base spec vehicles, or commercials, so I want alloys" and no-body ever does. I do like the gloss-black wheels that Kronprinz make (typically used for fitting winter tyres at a deeper profile than your summer ones) but I can't see any manufacturer offering them as standard equipment :)

(Edited for clarity of meaning / typos)

Edited by steelghost on 05/08/2015 at 14:12